Building

New York City is the only place where one can cross an intersection diagonally, inadvertently halt traffic in numerous directions, and all the while manage to crack a smile from an observing police officer. I take my time while crossing and watch an elderly woman with deeply set eye sockets as she is walked by her Chihuahua.

Up ahead, I see Willie, my building superintendant. He enters the subway tunnel a few feet ahead of me and disappears into the elevators rising to Fort Wash. Newspaper Guy wishes me a good morning as I walk past his area.

On the platform, I run into three married women, all tenants of my building, but only one of them smiles and says hello.

I get onto the train and sit next to a Latin woman with a large green Marshall’s bag, which she moves so that I will have more room to sit. She exudes a large, proud smile; she has done a good deed today.

When I get off at 59th, I see Benny S. near the newsstand but I am too engrossed in the latest episode of Heroes to say hello. The show is playing on the Blackberry, I downloaded it earlier this morning while I should have been getting ready for work. Annoyingly, there are still 15 minutes left to watch when we reach my stop, but at least I will have something to do on the ride home.